MEDICAL POT OUTLETS ON HOLD

Riverside County Temporarily Prohibits Dispensaries Until Regulations Emerge.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an emergency
moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries Tuesday, angering local
advocates and medicinal users of the drug.

The interim zoning ordinance bans medical pot establishments for 45 days
while the board determines how such establishments would be regulated.

Supervisor John Tavaglione introduced the measure after some residents in
his northwest district tried to open medical marijuana establishments and
he learned that no local zoning laws existed for them, said Anne Stephens,
chief deputy in Tavaglione's office.

Advocates of medical marijuana criticized the ordinance as irresponsible.
Lanny Swerdlow, director of the Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project in Palm
Springs, called it "overly broad."

Medical marijuana patients "are not potheads or stoners. They're just
regular people, like you and me," Dr. Joanne Benzor of Lake Elsinore told
the board. She says she prescribes the drug to more than 100 of her patients.

The board's vote comes as state and federal laws on medical marijuana are
conflicting on whether it is legal for seriously ill people who have
obtained a doctor's recommendation to use the drug. People with AIDS,
chronic pain and mood disorders are among those who use it.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that federal agents may seize
medicinal marijuana in spite of California's Proposition 215, which voters
approved in 1996 to legalize the use of it.

But federal drug enforcement agents have indicated that their focus is on
large-scale traffickers, not patients seeking relief.

Using the plant for physician-recommended therapeutic purposes remains
legal in California, one of 10 states -- most in the West -- with such
laws. The high court ruling did not overturn California's medical marijuana
laws, but it did leave medical pot users vulnerable to federal prosecution.

Proposition 215 offers no guidelines that regulate how patients should
obtain the drug, or whether dispensaries or co-ops are legal, said Teresa
Schilling, spokeswoman for state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.

"A lot of the counties may feel they're at risk," Schilling said, citing
recent cases of medical pot outlets operating as fronts for criminal
activity. "It's very difficult for them to come in and figure out a way to
regulate it and keep it safe."

Under a 2003 bill passed by state lawmakers, medicinal marijuana users can
receive special state identity cards that let local law enforcement
officials know they are in legitimate possession of the drug.

Riverside County's ID card program, in which applications are processed by
the county but issued by the state, should be up and running by Dec. 1,
said Michael Osur, the county's deputy director for public health.

More than half a dozen Riverside County residents made impassioned remarks
to the board Tuesday describing how medical marijuana alleviates their
symptoms -- of multiple sclerosis or paranoid schizophrenia, for example.

"It shouldn't be against the law for parents to grow medical marijuana for
their son," said Kyle Bashore, 21, of Cathedral City, who uses the drug for
the pain and nausea brought on by his Crohn's disease.

Tavaglione emphasized in the meeting that the ordinance was temporary.

The interim ordinance was designed "to give [the board] time to establish
requirements ... for placement of dispensaries," Tavaglione said, adding
that he thought it was necessary to keep such establishments away from
churches and schools.